Graphic card missing?

After having BSOD problem today I used windows restore system no longer detects my 580m. It installs the Intel graphic card, but I cant install Nvidia drivers manually. Says hardware not found. Any idea what to do? Dell's suport is closed here at the moment and maybe i can fix it before they open tomorrow.

Any help appreciated!

 

Try reseating the card, and doing a power drain.

 

Thanks for a quick reply.

By reseating you mean open the laptop and re insert it ?
Powerdrain - remove battery for about 10 minutes?

Not sure i got it right, not an expert

 

Yes.
Doesn't need to be 10 minutes.
Just pull out the battery, then hold down the power on button, aka the alienhead above the keyboard for 15+ seconds. I hold it for 30 just to be safe.
Also as a "Just in case," pull out the cmos battery for a minute and put it back in.

Should look like this.


Good luck, and I hope this works.

 

Taking out main battery helped. I always try to refrain from getting my hands on the isnides of any stuff as I have a tendency to rip things to pieces if they dont do as they are supposed. Glad I avoided it this time.

Thanks for your help zoolian. +1 from me

 

No problem, and good luck with your future endeavors.

Just remember to check this page out for any future possible issues, and just to learn more about your system.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ial-m17xr3-owners-lounge-thread-part-3-a.html

 

Sorry to invade this thread, but I also had a 580m installed into my Alienware m17x r3 by a Dell technician. The card is not a Dell card as I ordered it from Eurocom. The card is not being detected by my computer. The strange thing is that a week ago I installed the card myself and my computer did detect it, but I removed it again because the temperatures were high and I thought I incorrectly installed it. Now that a Dell tech has done it, it's strange that it is not working. The only different things he did was use the new card's x plate (I had swapped to the old one), and applied paste. Why isn't it detecting?

 

Try the methods mentioned above.

 

Well I tried taking out the battery, but not the cmos battery. Would that help? My issue seems to be very different than the OP's.

 

Do all 3. Battery, Cmos Battery, reseating card. Just take it out and put it back in.

 

K well I tried removing the cmos battery for 10 seconds. After putting it back in, the computer was just beeping. I turned it off and turned it back on and it seems fine now. However, it's still not picking up my graphics card, so back to square one

 

Did you reseat the card also?

 

Yes I did that several times. In fact, after the technician left, I re-installed the old video card (460m) and it wasn't being detected by my laptop either. So it must not be the card. I have since put the new card in exactly as the technician left it. Same issue.

 

I'm not familiar with the R3, but is there a setting in the BIOS that disables dedicated graphics?

I know whenever I cleaned my R1, when I put the GPU back in, it wouldn't be detected for the first couple of reboots. On the third or forth, it would be detected again and work fine.

 

no, at least not with ati 6990M. no bios switch.

 

Did you get this fixed? a bit Curious on what dell told you to do!

 

Maybe im completley off, would FN+ F7 and then removing the battery help?
Wouldnt it make the computer search for any other card than the integrated one?

Propably what i just wrote is a complete gibberish and Im not 100% sure I understand FN+F7 role

 

Your computer has optimus, so I don't think FN+F7 applies to you

On my lappy with amd 6990m, FN+F7 switches between the Intel Integrated graphics and discrete AMD 6990m

 

SlickDude80 is right, my computer use optimus, so FN+F7 shouldnt do anything. However, because my computer cannot detect my discrete graphics card in any way, FN+F7 is now saying "Switchable GFX Key press detected.Choose Yes to enable or No to Cancel." What's up with that?

 

what happens if you choose yes? anything?

 

Nothing I can tell

 

try removing cmos battery and booting it without it in.

Anything detected then?

 

I'm afraid to do that because last time I removed the battery and put it back in, the computer turned on blank and there was beeping. I turned it off and turned it back on and reinstalled the BIOS

 

Feral, if you put your 460m back in, does everything work?

 

No that's the strange thing. I tried putting it back in (with the new card's x plate because the dell tech broke off a screw on the old one) and it couldn't detect it either. So the Dell tech must have screwed something up. Could it be that the old card's (460m) xplate was needed? It had a metal flap covering a row of vram chips. The new card's xplate didn't. When I tried installing the card myself last week, I used the old card's x plate and it was detected fine. I since removed it because I was unsure if I did it correctly, so I called Dell. Ironically, I must have done it right in using the old x plate. Does this make sense? Or am I completely off?

 

Just to make it clearer, last week I removed the new card after I was unsure, I replaced the 460m back exactly as it was and it WAS detected. It was working fine until yesterday when the Dell tech installed the new card (using the new x plate, like I said) that both cards have stopped being detected.

 

Call Dell up and get them to fix it!

 

Ya I'm guessing that worst comes to worst, they can just replace the original video card's x plate because they broke it and it must be under warranty because it belonged to the old card, right?. But do you think that the x plate is the cause? Is the old x plate needed to allow my computer to detect it? I'm really hoping anything else in my computer is broken rather than the 580m, because I didn't buy that through Dell.